Words on a page

I started this meme (if you want to call it that) on my company’s blog and got some interesting reaction. So, I thought I’d continue it in this space — but on a slight tangent.

One thing that you might not know about me is that I’m absolutely horrible with foreign languages. I’ve tried learning three over the years and am 0 for 3. For whatever reason, my brain isn’t wired for picking up foreign tongues. Sure, I can get by — to varying degrees – in three or four foreign languages. But I can’t nor will I ever be able to use them professionally.

But this post isn’t about me. It’s about you. Here’s a question for the fives of writers who read this blog: if you know one or more foreign languages:

1. Has that knowledge of foreign languages been an advantage in your freelance writing career? Why or why not?
2. Do you get much work in the language(s) that you know?
3. What percentage of your work is done in foreign languages?

Please share your answers to those questions, and any thoughts that you have on the subject of foreign language skills and the freelance writer, by leaving a comment.

Photo credit: defret from stock.xchng

One of the great things about being a freelancer is that you have often have the option to work wherever you want. Many of stick close to home — either in an actual home office, or a quiet corner somewhere. When the weather’s warmer, I take a laptop or a netbook out on to my enclosed porch and work for hours.

Sometimes, though, we need a change of pace or a change of scene. That could mean taking off to a library, a coffee shop, or a co-working space. But simply decamping and setting yourself up at an open desk or table isn’t going to help you get more done. There are just as many distractions outside of the home office as there are in it.

If you need to get out of the home office, but also find that you lose a little (or more) focus, you’re not alone. Here are some things you can do before hand to get ready to work outside of the home office.

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I’m usually not one for marking anniversaries or epochs. But last week while at a conference, I was talking with another attendee and I happened to mention that I’d been writing professionally for 20 years.

Twenty years. Wow. It doesn’t seem that long. I won’t say it seems like only yesterday that I’d started putting words on pages (and later on screens), but the years since 1990 have gone by quickly. Far more quickly than I’d like them to have.

While I’ve actually been writing for longer than 20 years, and have had work in print since the late 1980s, it was only in 1990 that I turned my Smith Corona word processor to earn my living.

In a number of ways, I’m fortunate that I started writing professionally when I did. I saw, and took part in, a number of changes to this wacky profession. And, of course, there were a number of changes into the way in which and what I write.

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Why? Well, last week was interesting. To say the least. I got hit rather suddenly by the migraine from Hades last Monday. It laid me out for the next three days.

I’m in catch-up mode now, and aside from the usual weekly collection of links you probably won’t see anything new in this space this week.

Come back next week when I hope to be back on schedule.

I’ve always viewed myself as an article writer. Thoughts of writing a book have crossed my mind over the years, but the main thrust of my freelancing has always been writing articles and essays.

In fact, I’ve found myself getting very frustrated and very annoyed if I can’t write articles. That’s definitely been the case over the last 14 months or so. I’ve been putting a lot of energy into the consulting business that I co-own and that hasn’t left a lot of time for article writing.

Throughout December of last year, I did quite a bit of reflection and re-evaluation. And I realized that while I wasn’t writing as many articles as I wanted to it didn’t bother me. Definitely not as much as it did in the past.

Why? I’ve got my consulting business. It’s going fairly well. It’s taking up a lot of my time, but that’s time well invested. That’s where the change of focus comes in.

From now on, I won’t be writing as many articles as I did even in the last year or so. My business partner and I are planning a number of things over the next 11 months — many of which will be of interest to writers and freelancers in general. I’ll still be writing the occasional article, and regularly blogging in this space and elsewhere.

It should be an interesting shift. Will it work, though? There’s only one way to find out …

Photo credit: ariadna from morguefile.com